New York City, N.Y., Sep 11, 2019 / 10:59 am (CNA).- Amid calls for his resignation, Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo remains firm in his conviction not to step down from office, even as Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York assesses whether to open an investigation into Malone’s alleged mishandling of abuse cases.
“Cardinal Dolan has been following the situation in Buffalo very carefully. He is aware of his responsibilities under Vos estis lux mundi, he has been consulting extensively both with individuals in Buffalo, including Bishop Malone, clergy and laity,” Joseph Zwilling, communication director for the New York archdiocese, told CNA in a Sept. 10 interview.
“He has been in touch with the nuncio, and with the Holy See. So he has been remaining on top of it, and I expect that we will hear something, some development sometime in the near future,” Zwilling continued.
Malone took the reigns in Buffalo in 2012. Though no allegations of abuse have been made against Malone, he has recently faced accusations of mishandling or covering up accusations of clerical sexual abuse by priests in the diocese.
Vos estis lux mundi, Pope Francis’ new norms which came into force in June, puts “metropolitan” archbishops in charge of investigations into suffragan bishops, with authorization from the Holy See required.
The motu proprio also calls for an investigation into “actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations, whether administrative or penal, against a cleric or a religious.”
In this case, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York is Malone’s metropolitan archbishop.
“I can’t tell you exactly when, or what the development will be, but I would expect there to be some kind of development in the near future.”
A Buffalo lay group called the Movement to Restore Trust (MRT), which Malone considered an ally after it formed in 2018, on Sept. 5 joined the call for Malone’s resignation.
MRT is calling for the Vatican to appoint a temporary diocesan administrator with no ties to the Diocese of Buffalo while considering the appointment of a permanent bishop.
“Bishop Malone was looking forward to continuing to cooperate with the MRT and regrets that the work will now have to be done without their assistance,” the diocese said in a subsequent statement.
Malone has admitted that he has made mistakes in the past, but denies any criminal wrongdoing and says he will not resign.
Of what is Malone accused?
At least two whistleblowers with high-level access in the diocese— Malone’s former executive assistant and former priest secretary— have gone public with accusations that Malone mishandled several cases of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese, some of which involved minors.
One such case is that of Father Fabian Maryanski, whom a now 50-year-old woman accused of sexually abusing her beginning when she was 15. She reported the abuse in 1995, but a letter from the victim’s attorney seemed to suggest that the woman was in her twenties when the abuse occurred.
The diocesan victim compensation panel found her story believable and offered her compensation, but Bishop Malone said last year that there was still confusion about whether the victim was a minor at the time of the abuse.
As of Jan. 2019, Maryanski’s name was not included on the diocesan page of credibly accused clergy, but it has since been added. Maryanski was removed from ministry last year.
In another case, Father Robert Yetter garnered three sexual harassment complaints. Malone and Grosz reprimanded Yetter, and placed him on “voluntary leave,” WKBW reported late last year. Because the case did not involve minors, the diocese does not publicly list Yetter’s name.
Malone has also faced questions about his handling of the case of Fr. Art Smith, whom Malone’s predecessor Bishop Edward Urban Kmiec placed on leave in 2011, after the mother of a boy at St. Mary of the Lake school complained that the priest was sending inappropriate Facebook messages to her son.
Malone reinstated Smith to ministry in 2012, after the accused priest spent time in a Philadelphia treatment center, according to an investigation by local news station WKBW.
“Maybe I could have looked at it in a different way,” Malone said last November.
“We had decided with Art Smith— because, again, the Facebook incident did not rise technically to be sexual abuse— to keep him in some limited ministry,” Malone told WBEN.
Malone pointed out that he did not again assign Smith to a parish setting. Despite this, the WKBW investigation revealed that while working in nursing home, Smith heard confessions at a diocesan Catholic youth conference attended by hundreds of teenagers in 2013. There were also reports of inappropriate conduct with adults in the nursing home.
“That backfired, too, because even sending him to work in a nursing home…nothing happened with children, but there were some inappropriate actions with adults. So we were dealing with him, but not in a way that I would do now. I admit my failure there,” the bishop said.
He also signed off to allow Smith to become a chaplain on a cruise ship in 2015, and the bishop said now he is “kicking [himself] for that.”
Smith is currently listed on the diocesan page for clergy with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor.
Malone has since suspended a number of clerics, including in Nov. 2018 a young priest from south of Buffalo for alleged sexual misconduct with an adult woman. Most recently, on Sept. 7, the diocese announced that allegations of abuse of a minor against Father Louis S. Dolinic had been substantiated and the priest would remain on administrative leave while the Vatican made a final determination.
In August 2018, WKBW published an investigative report revealing that Malone’s former executive assistant, Siobhan O’Connor, leaked internal diocesan documents to the press which suggested that Malone worked with diocesan lawyers to avoid releasing publicly the names of some diocesan priests accused of misconduct.
Several of the allegations involved boundary violations or sexual misconduct against adults, meaning that the diocese was not required to take action against them in the same way that it would allegations of sexual abuse of minors, under the 2002 Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.
Malone said that while he sought to follow the Charter’s requirements, he “may have lost sight of the Charter’s spirit, which applies to people of all ages.”
O’Connor has been continually calling for Malone’s resignation.
“Be truthful with us, Bishop Malone. Put an end to this toxic secrecy and painful silence,” she wrote in a Nov. 4, 2018 op-ed in The Buffalo News.
“And, if you love us, begin the process of allowing new episcopal leadership to come to our diocese.”
In Sept. 2019, WKBW released recordings of private conversations between Bishop Malone and Fr. Ryszard Biernat, Malone’s former priest secretary, which appear to show that Malone believed sexual harassment accusations made against a diocesan priest months before the diocese removed the priest from ministry.
Biernat recorded the conversations as the bishop discussed how to deal with accusations against Fr. Jeffrey Nowak by then-seminarian Matthew Bojanowski, who accused Nowak of grooming him, sexually harassing him, and violating the Seal of the Confessional.
In an Aug. 2 conversation, Malone can reportedly be heard saying, “We are in a true crisis situation. True crisis. And everyone in the office is convinced this could be the end for me as bishop.”
In one conversation from March, Bishop Malone seems to acknowledge the legitimacy of Bojanowski’s accusation against Nowak months before the diocese removed Nowak from active ministry.
Despite this assessment, Nowak was not removed from ministry until Aug. 7, one day after the seminarian’s mother accused Malone of allowing Fr. Nowak to remain in ministry despite the allegations against him.
Biernat says he made the secret recording after Nowak became jealous of Biernat and Bojanowski’s close friendship. According to a conversation taped Aug. 2, the bishop was concerned that media coverage would focus on a possible “love triangle” between Nowak, Bojanowski, and Biernat.
Biernat also says he was a victim of sexual abuse by Father Art Smith. He alleges that Auxiliary Bishop Grosz threatened to halt his ordination as a priest and have him deported to Poland after Biernat complained in 2004 to Buffalo Diocese administrators that he was sexually assaulted by a priest, according to The Buffalo News.
Grosz has since “categorically” denied the claim.
Reaction in Buffalo
Malone is remaining firm that he will not step down. He reiterated his conviction that he will remain as bishop in a Sept. 6 interview with WBEN Radio.
A lay-led petition calling for his resignation has garnered nearly 10,000 signatures as of press time. A number of clergy have written open letters to local publications calling for Malone’s resignation.
Father Robert Zilliox, of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, drafted a letter in early September calling for Malone and Auxiliary Bishop Grosz to resign.
“We, the People of God that constitute our diocese, are angry, hurt, and in need of authentic, humble, sincere and holy spiritual leadership. We believe that despite your good work in the past you are no longer able to provide that leadership,” the letter reads, as quoted by WKBW.
In mid-August 2019, twenty-two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Buffalo, a province of the Society of Jesus, multiple priests, eight parishes, three high schools, a seminary, among others, alleging “a pattern of racketeering activity” that enabled and covered up clerical sexual abuse.
The lawsuit was filed on the first day of a legal “window” allowing for sexual abuse lawsuits to be filed in New York even after their civil statute of limitations had expired.
Among the plaintiffs, who have not been publicly named, are several alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse. The lawsuit alleges specific instances of sexual abuse by priests, and claims that the diocese failed in its duty of care towards children by allowing abusive priests to have contact with minors through parishes and schools.
Calling the diocese and affiliated organizations an “association in fact” for the purposes of federal racketeering laws, the suit alleges “common purpose” in “harassing, threatening, extorting, and misleading victims of sexual abuse committed by priests” and of “misleading priests’ victims and the media” to prevent reporting or disclosure of sexual misconduct.
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Right after allowing Anglican ‘Mass’ in Catholic basilica. The Church is in the hands of demons.
Yeah, uh, demons are insisting people stop messing with and thus preventing the bestowal of grace specific to … the Sacraments. That makes sense.
Personally Robert I will not be convinced that the Pachamama Vatican lawn worship, the Pachamama St Peter’s Basilica enshrinement ceremony, cardinals dancing and chanting carrying the idolatrous effigy into the sanctuary has not had dire daemonic repercussions.
Although it is a perfectly clear and required document on the validity of the sacraments in respect to some, who ‘create’ their own meaning of both the words of consecration during the Mass and the conferring of other sacraments, after 11 years of dilution of the power of the sacraments by suggestion and duplicity the DDF is apparently following the exact pattern of following some scandalous statement with pristine orthodoxy. Sort of like following being beaten with soothing music and a favorite dish. The mind’s apprehensive faculty eventually becomes numbed and incapable of moral discernment.
That is certainly the pattern.
Sick, those who cannot accept he is upholding the Faith as he is required. Stop playing teams and be faithful disciples. Uou should be rejoicing!
Reconciliation after an injury, doesn’t come because the person gives evidence that they aren’t completely depraved, but because they repent of and work to reform the specific sinfulness that caused the injury.
One might rejoice over finding that a Protestant isn’t completely wrong about the Faith. Finding out that a *Cardinal* has managed to say something that about the Faith that is neither wrong, nor misleading, (with help from an entire Dicastery available) nor hyper-sexualized, seems like it should be expected. The fact that it cannot be, is no reason to rejoice.
A covering gesture that merely states a few obvious points that should not be necessary were the Church not hemorrhaging from the same sources that refuses to acknowledge their critical wounding, which has wounded the whole of humanity, not a mere idiosyncratic internal error. Given the history of duplicity of these two men, one can rationally expect an upcoming assault on sacramental orthodoxy and shameful indifference from their acolytes.
Yes, it is a typical pattern of emotional abuse: abuse – normality – abuse – normality etc. The more people will recognize that pattern the better is for them and for the Church.
I see another thing here: in effect, there are two Churches now, one is true and another is fake (a shadow). The fake one endorses all those “blessings”, Synodality, perverse mysticism and so on. The true one is trying to stick to the revealed truth. The fake Church cannot exist without the true one (because it needs a credibility of the true Church, it needs her very Body to parasitize on it) though so it is in her interest to keep the true Church around. Those two Churches will continue to exist under the same roof.
Hence Fernandez, after throwing the necessary food (‘FS’) into the fake Church to grow her, now throws something suitable into the true Church. It is very much akin to a narcissistic abuser who occasionally interrupts his abuse with “love bombing” to the victim would perk up a bit and continue providing to an abuser with emotional resources.
When speaking above of an emotional abuse in a toxic family I forgot to mention a crucial role (for perpetuating a circle of abuse) of “good-willing explainers” i.e. those who keep telling the victim “He is not bad, look, he gave you such a nice present, don’t cause unpleasantries in your family” and so on. (Note that they blame a victim for “unpleasantness” and not an abuser). In a case with the Church, the words are usually “You are bad Catholics, you only see bad things, you create disunity” thus attacking those who point the wrong instead of engaging in a rational discussion about that wrong.
There is a way to verify whether an abuser is “good” so the victim should “trust him”. If an abuser repented his actions and did reparation then yes, he is moving towards good and a victim may cautiously trust him (if she so desires). But if an abuser did none of the sort but bought her flowers then no – because there is no reason to believe that he changed. Analogically, if ‘FS’ was cancelled/condemned, those responsible for it and other scandalous things repented and did reparations then the faithful would have a reason to rejoice and to begin trusting again. As long as nothing of that has been done = the past abuse is not addressed and its consequences have not been repaired then the faithful would be very unwise “to trust” and to rejoice.
Fernandez is the very last person on the face of the earth to be chiding others for an “unbridled imagination.” Pot and kettle going on here, a la “mystical orgasms.”
I suspect this is put out there to build some sort of credibility following the FS fiasco.
Go home, Your Eminence.
I meant to reply this person, regarding those who cannot stop their partisan behavior long enough to recognize the DDF, Fernandez, and/or Francis doing their job and celebrating it. But I guess it applies to almost every comment here.
This is a papacy that has played foot-loose with the Sacrament of Marriage and now it wants to shore up the entire sacramental system because some ministers are coming up with personal interpretations of the various rites. Ironic, indeed.
“Shore up? Foot lose”? Explain.
The sacrement of matrimony was “shored up” with annulments, regaining your Catholc faith after a divorce. A marriage that has absorbed too much pain of mental and physical abuse and suffering will cease to exist.
My new wife suffered 30 years of torture from a criminal gambler who took the family into bankruptsy. Thank God she and her four chidren survived.
US Conference of Catholic Bishops: “declaration of nullity when there is no longer any hope of reconciliation of the spouses”. The only relief is when a couple divorces, they must remarry in the Church. We could not because they were not divorced since he refused. The children from such a seemingly, impossible to get divorce will have lingering issues. Dad is still admired.
Thank God for Gail. She is not only my wife, she is my life.
Sorry, Fernandez. Not listening anymore.
Throw the dogs a bone after creating a global scandal with “Fiducia Supplicans”?
They have no credence. I would not take the advice of Bergoglio or Fernandez on how to exit a paper bag. I’ll abide by the orthodox teaching provided over two thousand years in the perennial magisterium. No one requires any counsel from manipulative deceivers toying with the minds of the faithful.
We witness the collapse of the two voices for freedom in Western Civilization. The Catholic Church is in retreat from authentic faith and the United States — with the grotesque leadership of many post-conciliar Catholics — abandons its role in insuring the liberty of the globe.
Its far beyond time to wake up. Church and State are in the hands of atheist Fascists.
It used to be trendy to baptize “In the Name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier” to replace those offensive terms “Father” and “Son.” After a non-Catholic friend witnessed such a ceremony in the ’80s, I suggested that she might baptize the infant herself with the correct form, if she could get the child alone by a faucet. I don’t know if she ever did. But there must be quite a number of Catholics in that area who were never properly baptized–and don’t know that.
This “note” from the DDF is nothing more than what the military calls a DIVERSIONARY TACTIC. A transparent move to distract our attention from “Fiducia Supplicans” and their continuing and resolute defense of same!
This is a bone for faithful Catholics – stating nothing more than obvious Church teachings which Pope Francis’s Vatican will studiously continue to sidestep or ingore, as has been their modus operandi from the start. All while they continue with their chief military objective – the wreckovation of the Catholic Church!
This might be a side issue, but I’m throwing it out here: Unsurprisingly, the document just HAD to make that remark about “keeping at a distance…from rigid rubricism.” There’s those two dirty “R” words, again! The same snark from the current Vatican leadership, repeating this hackneyed canard– a “rigidity” which by and large doesn’t even really exist in the post-Conciliar liturgy. (Remember why “Read the black, do the red” has been such a big deal for the last half-century?) Ironic…the very thing they are complaining about as far as being “creative” with celebrating the sacraments (whatever that means) is, in fact, kept in check by being OBSERVANT (= rigid) yet being within the bounds entails a certain degree of real standardization (= rigidity), doesn’t it?
It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.
“It’s frankly scandalous when faithful Catholics are reduced to placing the Vatican in the same category as the US Federal government i.e. you can’t trust a word they say.”
Yes it is scandalous and you must consider the fact that those Baptized Catholics in the U.S. government calling for “ the new catholic springtime” are the same group of catholics who deny that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage and thus The Author Of our unalienable Right to Life, to Liberty, and, to The Pursuit of Happiness, the purpose of which can only be, what God intended, because they desire to change both The Letter And Spirit Of The Law, and thus The Letter And Spirit Of The Constitution , by rendering onto Caesar or themselves, what Has Always, and Will Always belong to God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity.
When you render onto Caesar, what belongs to God, anything can become permissible, including the destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter, residing in their mother’s womb.
Woe to us!
As The Veil is being lifted, the atheist materialist overpopulation alarmist globalist are being exposed, including those who are attempting to make it appear as though they are part of The One Body of Christ, which is not possible, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.
I missed this. Being put together, it is quite remarkable:
#1 “Both matter and form, summarized in the Code of Canon Law, are established in the liturgical books promulgated by the competent authority, which must therefore be faithfully observed, without ‘adding, removing or changing anything,’”
and
#2 “It seems increasingly urgent to mature an art of celebrating that, keeping at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination, leads to a discipline to be respected, precisely in order to be authentic disciples,”
Well, the person cannot help two express two contrary spirits in one message:
#1 – he states what is correct and expected of him: do that “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”
#2 – he creates a room for his own rules urging the faithful to keep “at a distance as much from rigid rubricism as from unbridled imagination”. Note how the masterfully added “unbridled imagination” softens the absurdity of condemning “rigid rubricism” after advising to embrace that very “rigid rubricism” = “without ‘adding, removing or changing anything”.
It is the same duplicity that ‘FS’ has “we do not change the Church’s teaching” – “we order to bless homosexual couples”. One cancels another. I will also add that there is a sense of emptiness behind the latter document, as if it was crafted automatically.
Pulling it down to where it belongs i.e. a toxic family’s constellation: a narcissistic parent as a rule has his own set of rules, often contradictory which he exercised as it suits him. He creates chaos without which he cannot live. Instead of upholding the moral law as something above him, such a person uses it as a mere tool of his to control others and never obeys it himself. He is the only law-giver there.
Those in the Vatican and in local churches who preach anti-rigidity do this only for one reason: to obtain a license to rule as they wish, without obeying the objective rules created by the Church. It is like a bad parent who corrupts their own children with all-permissiveness so they could be “loved” and manipulate children as it suits them.
PS When I first saw the title “Vatican doctrine office releases note on discerning the validity of the sacraments” I thought that the Vatican is reassuring the faithful that Eucharist is still the Body and Blood, even after ‘FS”. Probably because it was what I have been thinking about since ‘FS’.
I used to go to Mass every second day. I cannot live without Holy Communion. Since ‘FS’ I have been just a few times, overcoming myself. Last time I did not want to go, forced myself and felt totally numb. I cannot help but wonder if it is good to receive Holy Communion while being very aware of the covert heresy hanging over the Church, so to speak. If I was worshiping with a congregation which publicly rejected ‘FS’ I would not have such a dilemma.
My problem then is of an inner conflict, of my desire to receive Our Lord and of my emotional inability to do so. To shut down my correct emotions is wrong; to stay without Christ is also bad. By the way, I perceive ‘FS’ to be a double bind for a believer’s psyche because it creates a dilemma that breaks that psyche: “come to the Church which accepts a heresy and receive Christ”; Christ thus is used as a tool. This is the fruit of ‘FS’ and of similar things. “By their fruits…”
We, the faithful, should have the minimal rights: to be able to come to Mass and worship and receive the Lord without lies, twists and convert heresies making it a torture if not impossible. Those covert lies are a form of emotional abuse and emotional abuse is not compatible with Christ. In fact they do something to the Eucharist, via a violation of the psyche of the faithful.